Ask fans of Formula One racing in the 1960s who the best driver of the period was, and you’re likely to get a near-unanimous reply of “Jim Clark.” Even today, many F1 enthusiasts consider the soft-spoken Scotsman to be in the top five Formula One drivers of all time, citing Clark’s uncanny natural talent to drive any car at its absolute limit.

Unlike many of his his peers in the sport, Clark didn’t come from a racing family and didn’t spend his early years coming up through racing’s junior ranks. Born to a sheep farming family in Kilmany, Fife, Scotland, in 1936, Clark’s childhood was spent attending to farm chores with his four sisters. It wasn’t until Clark was shipped off to boarding school at age 13 that he began to show an interest in motorsports. During trips home, Clark would “borrow” the family car for surreptitious drives on the farm, where he was otherwise restricted to piloting tractors. Licensed to drive at age 17, Clark soon purchased a Sunbeam Talbot, and shortly thereafter began entering the car in local rallies.

His talent behind the wheel quickly won him admirers, including those with far more means than Clark himself. As a result, Clark was often asked to drive faster and more capable cars, such as the Jaguar D-type he occasionally campaigned for a local racing team known as the “Border Reivers,” named for a notorious band of Scottish outlaws. Despite his growing success, Clark did his best to keep his racing career from his family, who were less than enthusiastic over his newly chosen profession. As the only son, it was automatically assumed that Clark would one day take over the family farm.

In 1958, driving a Border Reivers Lotus Elite, Clark found himself racing against Lotus founder Colin Chapman at Brands Hatch. Chapman took the win, but Clark finished second in the 10-lap duel. Impressed by the young Scottish driver’s talent, Chapman began following Clark’s racing exploits. In 1959, Clark finished 10th at Le Mans, co-driving a Lotus Elite, before going on to take victory at the Bo’ness Hill Climb behind the wheel of a Lister Jaguar. That was enough proof for Chapman, who offered Clark a funded ride in a Lotus Formula Junior.

Clark pilots a Ford Cortina at the limit.

Clark had previously driven a Formula Junior in a single race at Brands Hatch, and quickly mastered the Lotus equivalent. It took less than half a season for Chapman to move Clark up to the ranks of Formula One, and Clark’s first F1 race was the 1960 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, on June 6, 1960. Starting from 11th on the grid, Clark’s day ended with a transmission failure on lap 42.

Clark’s next F1 race, the 1960 Belgian Grand Prix, was a gruesome reminder of Formula One’s ever-present dangers and utterly unforgiving nature. Teammates Stirling Moss and Mike Taylor were both critically injured in practice, and Taylor was left paralyzed as the result of a crash caused by a failed weld on his Lotus’s steering column. Despite this distraction, Clark started from 10th on the grid, two spots behind teammate Innes Ireland and seven spots ahead of teammate Alan Stacey.

Nineteen laps into the race, driver Chris Bristow lost control of his Cooper-Climax in Burnenville Corner, the same spot where Stirling Moss had crashed the day before. Bristow’s car tumbled down an embankment on the outside of the corner, throwing the driver into a barbed wire fence. The impact with the wire decapitated Bristow, and Clark himself narrowly missed hitting Bristow’s lifeless body, which had tumbled back onto the track surface. Despite this tragic death, the race was not stopped; minutes later, on lap 25, Clark’s own teammate and friend Alan Stacey became the event’s second fatality.

It’s not entirely clear what caused Stacey’s crash, also in Burnenville corner, though reports stated that the driver may have been knocked unconscious by a bird strike to the head on approach to the turn. As with the first fatality of the day, Stacey’s crash failed to draw a red flag, and the race continued to its end as if nothing out of the ordinary had transpired.

Clark managed a fifth place finish that dark day, but the toll of the race nearly proved too much for him. For the first time in his driving career, Clark seriously considered leaving the sport behind. He’d be tested again at Monza in 1961, when the Ferrari of Wolfgang von Trips hit Clark’s Lotus on lap two and launched into the grandstands, killing von Trips and a total of 14 spectators. For the second time in a little over a year, Clark considered walking away from the sport he’d grown to love and hate in equal measure.

It was largely the efforts of Colin Chapman that kept Clark in Formula One, and for the next four years the combination of Chapman’s design and Clark’s talent proved largely unstoppable. The Climax V-8 engines that powered the team, however, were anything but, and Clark lost the 1962 F1 World Championship when an oil leak forced him out of the last race of the season on lap 63.

In the 1963 season, Clark would win seven of the scheduled 10 races, take seven pole positions and set six fastest laps. He amassed 54 championship points, nearly double that of his next closest competitors, Graham Hill and Richie Ginther, who’d amassed 29 points each.

The following season, 1964, would be a repeat of 1962, with Clark losing the championship to John Surtees when another oil leak forced him out of the final race of the season. In 1965, Clark earned his second F1 World Championship, winning six of 10 races, claiming six of 10 poles and setting six of 10 fastest laps. Driving a Lotus 38, Clark also enjoyed victory at the 1965 Indianapolis 500, leading 190 of 200 laps and becoming the first driver to win the race in a mid-engined car. In doing so, Clark became the only driver to date to win the Formula 1 title and the Indy 500 in a single year.

In 1966, the FIA revised the engine regulations for Formula One, allowing the use of 3.0-liter engines (up from 1.5 liters in the previous season). Lotus struggled to remain competitive, even with Clark behind the wheel, and the Scottish star finished just three of nine races. If there was a highlight, it came at the U.S. Grand Prix in Watkins Glen, where Clark took his first and only victory of the 1966 F1 season. He fared slightly better in 1967, but still retired early in five of the season’s 11 races; on the positive side, he won four of the six races he did finish.

When Clark took victory at the season-opening South African Grand Prix in 1968, it looked as if both Lotus and Clark could be back in winning form. The win brought his total to 25, making him the most successful F1 driver in the sport at the time. No one could possibly know that the South African race represented Clark’s final glory in a Formula One car.

Clark leading a pack of cars at the Dutch Grand Prix, 1967.

On April 7, 1968, driving a Lotus 48 in a Formula 2 race at Hockenheim, Germany, Clark’s rear tire deflated, leading to a crash that would claim his life at age 32. The racing world was stunned, as many viewed Clark as incapable of crashing; over the course of a nine-season Formula One career, Clark had suffered just four major accidents, far below the average of the day. Said fellow racer Chris Amon, “If it could happen to him, what chance do the rest of us have?”

Though best known for his Formula One exploits, Clark proved remarkably capably behind the wheel of anything he drove (and that long list includes British Touring Cars, a Lotus Cortina Rally car and a Ford Galaxy NASCAR stock car). Unlike drivers who could only be fast when a car was properly set up, Clark retained the uncanny ability to go fast no matter how good (or bad) the car was. Of his skills, Sir Jackie Stewart once said, “He never bullied a racing car, he sort of caressed it into doing the things he wanted it to do.”

Had Clark not died on that April morning in 1968, no one knows how many more records the quiet Scot with the winning smile would have set. Could he have established himself as the greatest driver of all time, bar none? In the eyes of many Formula One fans, he already had.

24 Responses to “Racing Heroes – Jim Clark”

One of my heros in my youth and throughout my adult life. It is not possible to say who is or was the best driver of all time. Fangio, Clark, Nuvolari, Andretti, Foyt, Stewart, Schumaker, Senna, Lauda, Christansen, Ascari, Moss, Ickx and on and on. Clark, Foyt and Fangio were fast in anything. I will forever wonder at what Clark could have accomplished in Lotus later and better cars or in some other camp. I don’t believe that it was a secret that he and Chapman shared a love/hate relationship toward the end. Indeed, a marvel to behold behind the wheel and a mix of conflicted emotions while not racing. He was suprisingly insecure and a cronic nail biter, at times self efacing and at other times supremely confident. Sometimes when I have the chance to do it safely, I’ll drive as fast as I can go. Clark drove as fast as the car could go.

Jim Clark was my hero as a teenager. I followed his exploits in “Road and Track” and the “San Francisco Chronicle.” After Phil Hill retired from racing F1, Clark took my heart. When he died, I never followed Formula 1 again. I love cars and racing, but death should not be part of the equasion. Throughout the ’50’s and ’60’s cars got faster and faster and drivers died. It was too much for me, and even though it is far safer now, I have never regained my interest in F1.

I remember watching these races when Wide World Of Sports came on in 62 and was amazed at how lax the safety standards were in all of motorsports. Never watched a race for the accidents as some accuse. But it was hard to take your eyes off of some of the horrific accidents of the day. For so long the only safety equipment was a half baked roll bar and seat belts.

…….in today’s era of multi-million dollar F1 driver salaries, it’s amazing to remember how little the great drivers of the past were paid for their dangerous efforts. Jim Clark died while moonlighting in a junior series, something almost unheard of today. Well into the ’80’s top drivers supplemented their modest salaries with “appearance money” and potential purses in far flung events which didn’t conflict with their F1 or Champ Car schedules. Reigning World Champion James Hunt famously picked up pin money in lowly Formula Atlantic cars on off weekends. I remember watching Jimmy, Sir Jackie, and many others driving over here in both Formula Libre and Can-Am cars. They were not rich men, and realizing their skills would not last forever, they made their money while they could……sometimes with tragic results, as in this case….R.I.P. Jimmy.

I always admired Mr. Clark; he seemed to be a regular guy with extraordinary talents. No huge ego, no personal scandal he just went about doing his job. I’m sure the money was okay but by today’s standards it was chump change especially considering the risks involved. In the interviews he did he sometimes appeared to be insecure and even unsure of his immense talent. But when he got behind the wheel of anything he was fearless, smooth, and fast. The man had class, humility and balls…………….mgg

Still a hero. Following his career as a 10 year old, I bought and actually read “Jim Clark at the Wheel” paperback around ’64 – still have it. Ears glued to the radio for the ’64 Indy 500, I suddenly became aware of the danger that took Dave MacDonald and Eddie Sachs. Fireball Roberts – what kid didn’t love a guy named Fireball. Then Jim Clark…I gave up on heros after that or just grew up a bit.

Other than my grandfather, Jim Clark was my main hero in the day as he was to many. I began buyng the occasional copy of Road & Track in ’65, subscribed in ’66, and voraciously read it & anything else I could find about Clark and F1. Have a dogeared copy of Jimmy’s book that I’ve been thru many times, as well as Dymock’s more recent tome. I never had the same feel about F1 after Jimmy was gone and as his contempories retired, one way ofanother, I eventually quit following it at all.

Jimmy Clark was flying around tracks in everything that could roll on wheels when I was still under 10 years old and became one of my early heroes. This became an obsession with motor racing that still grips me today, as I’m preparing the RV for a run to Laguna Seca Thursday for ALMS. Unfortunately this is one of the last, true blood sports. Thankfully events like Jimmy’s crash are very few and far between today. Partly because of his shocking death safety on the track and in the car really started to get attention.

The first F1 race I ever attended was the 1966 US Grand Prix that Jim Clark won. After the race, my father and I were waiting to fly back to New York at the airport in Elmira. All of a sudden in walks Colin Chapman, Jim Clark and other Lotus people carrying the trophy. I am standing there with my jaw hanging open as they put the trophy on one of the seats in front of me. Chapman looks at the others and says: ” Well men, I think we have had a rather good day…”

I have been to many F1 races since then but never have I had such a special moment. It was a very special time and he was a very special driver.

So let me get this straight – at the 1960 Belgium GP (which I assume was at Spa), during the race two drivers tragically lost their lives, including one who was decapitated on a barbed wire fence, and they didn’t stop the race??? Wow, that was indeed a blood sport. How could you keep on driving after nearly running over the headless body of one of your competitors?

You are correct. Just saw an hour long program on the tragedy including film stills “never been shown before.” Hawthorn admitted that he was the cause at first and received a lukewarm reception on the rostrum. Later, he denied it was his fault. Norman Dewis (who was there)emphatically denies it was Hawthorn’s fault. The film showed Hawthorne (with disc brakes) suddenly slowing for the pits, Macklin swerving out to overtake him and Levegh piling into the back of him – nowhere else to go. The program was very critical of the narrowness of the track in the pit area, the grandstand placed just after a curve in the track and scant protection for those in it. Also Levegh’s advancing years. In the end, it was a “racing accident” exacerbated by totally inadequate safety precautions. French witnesses described seeing many spectators decapitated by Levegh’s flying engine & debris. The final death toll was never recorded – “at least 84.”

A “golden era” perhaps, but seriously flawed by lack of safety. Neither Mercedes or Jaguar raced there again for 30 years.

For my money,nobody else comes close.I think his record speaks for itself.He’s still the only driver to win both the F1 Championship and Indy in the same year.Can you picture any driver doing that today?

These are nice pictures of the Lotus cars and there experiences. Clark was one of the best in this generation. However, we should also give credit to Colin Chapman Designer and builders of Lotus Cars. He is shown in these pictures and is never mentioned.

When I was 12 years old I had the honor of seeing Jim Clark drive at the 1964 Indy 500. This was the first race I had been to and our seats were at the exit of turn four. It was evident that Clark was a master of precision as he walked away from the field in his Lotus Ford.
Sadly I witnessed the tragedy of the Sachs and McDonald incident. I have photos my dad took just before the accident occurred. When the race resumed Jimmy’s Dunlop tire suffered a failure that broke the drive axle. There was no doubt if the car stayed together the victory was his. I still have the ticked stub from that day.
There’s no doubt Jim was one of the best and my favorite. Imagine a grid with all the greats on near equal machinery?

At the ’64 Indy 500 I was 14 and sitting with my dad opposite the pit entrance that day. The big accident came to a halt in front of us – not a pleasant sight.

Clark was one of my heroes. Tragic that it took many hideous accidents and deaths before any serious safety measures were taken by the racing organizing bodies around the world. It took pressure from commercial sponsors and threats of banning racing in certain locales to get this issue addressed.

[…] a competition history; a 1963 Corvette Grand Sport roadster; a 1958 Aston Martin DBR1 once raced by Jim Clark during his “Border Reivers” racing days; and a 1956 Jaguar D-Type, with a history of […]

[…] Jim Clark, known to fans the world over as “The Flying Scott,” is perhaps best remembered for his two Formula One world championships, earned in 1963 and 1965. American fans may also remember his success in the Indianapolis 500, where in five runnings Clark delivered a victory and a pair of second-place podium finishes. This year represents the 50th anniversary of Clark’s 1965 Brickyard win, and in honor of this, the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA) will pay tribute at the 2015 Brickyard Invitational with a display of Clark’s Indy race cars. […]